DVD Report
New Releases | Tom Russo
Go ahead, make your DVD collection
It takes a bona fide film franchise to fill out a DVD set as satisfyingly expansive as the "Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition" (2008). Still, as more than one observer notes in featurettes reexamining Clint Eastwood's iconic antihero cop, when the original "Dirty Harry" was released in 1971, it wasn't so much popcorn franchise fare as hot-button cinema. And Harry Callahan's obsessive pursuit of San Francisco serial killer Scorpio (Andy Robinson) still feels pitch-dark at points, never mind the pop thrill of that signature "Do I feel lucky" refrain. (It's a sense indirectly aided by last year's "Zodiac," and its clinical depiction of the way real-world SFPD powerlessly slogged through the case on which the Scorpio story line was modeled.) The inclination with this remastered set is to focus on the original installment and 1983's "Sudden Impact," another one for the annals of catch-phraseology thanks to "Go ahead, make my day" (and Ronald Reagan). But there's fun to be had elsewhere, from lady cop Tyne Daly sporting a purse in "The Enforcer" (1976) to a car chase with a remote-controlled miniature in "The Dead Pool" (1988). While the entire series gets a nicely varied assortment of commentaries, "Magnum Force" (1973) offers the most insightful, from writer John Milius. Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel handles tracks on the original and "Impact." Featurettes on the series' legacy and sense of morality pool the same interviews, but make some cogent points, e.g., noting the series' pattern of alternating between leftist and rightist villains. The box's additional throw-ins range from the silly (a replica Dirty Harry badge) to the enlightening (production correspondence detailing Frank Sinatra's brief casting as Callahan). (Warner, $74.92; Blu-ray, $129.95; individual titles available separately)
"FLAWLESS" (2008)
Demi Moore and Michael Caine are intriguingly paired partners in crime as an overlooked female exec at a '60s London diamond exchange and the night janitor with an inside plan. Director Michael Radford ("Il Postino") builds tension on multiple levels, from the scheme itself, to a mostly incidental plot thread about an insurance giant welshing on the resulting claim. Lambert Wilson (the Merovingian in the "Matrix" sequels) is also featured as an ice-cold insurance investigator with unerring instincts, but British character actor Joss Ackland ("Lethal Weapon 2") makes the bigger impression as the diamond corporation's boss, seething with yikes-eliciting wrath. Caine gives the elegantly crusty work you'd expect, but Moore's stylish turn, complete with Dave Brubeck intro and outro, leaves one wondering why she doesn't get more opportunities like this.
Extras: A lone featurette is disappointingly skimpy, offering all the standard back-patting - "she was great, he was great" - rather than anything genuinely insightful about the film's unexpected casting. (Magnolia, $26.98)
"THE ONION MOVIE" (2008)
Fans of the satirical news outlet "The Onion" will be amused by this collection of characteristically smart lowbrow laughs, even if some targets have long since passed their expiration date. A mock movie trailer with Steven Seagal is a case in point - although it's a neat trick that the bit makes Seagal intentionally funny. There's virtually no attempt made to weave a story thread from any of this, which is a refreshing change from any number of "SNL"-branded features, but which does nothing to justify the "Movie" in the title. (No wonder this one went straight to DVD.) Still, there's got to be a place on TV for a skit in which a stocking-faced stickup man, demanding a hand up rather than a handout, gets a job - as a stocking-faced teller.
Extras: Deleted scenes and outtakes. (Fox, $26.98)
"MANNIX": SEASON ONE (1967-68)
Mike Connors's brawling detective makes his DVD debut, in a setting that leaves him raging in his cage: In the first season, he worked for button-down Intertect, a large detective agency, before striking out on his own, Marlowe-style. Either way, this is stock genre stuff compared to, say, "Dirty Harry."
Extras: Connors and costar Joseph Campanella sit down for an interview and commentary. (Paramount, $54.99)
Indie DVD | Mark Feeney
A thriller for your viewing pleasure
A walker, in society parlance, is an unattached, presentable male - usually gay who escorts socialites with absent husbands. Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) comes straight from walker central casting. The grandson of a Virginia governor and son of a senator, he's Washington, D.C., aristocracy: cultivated, witty, impeccably tailored, almost preening - but not quite. Bryan Ferry, who's heard on the soundtrack, sounds just the way Page behaves. "How come you're always so polite?" the wife of the Senate minority leader (Kristin Scott Thomas) nearly snarls at him. "It was my mother's answer to chaos," he mildly replies. "Now it's mine."
Paul Schrader, the writer-director of "The Walker," wrote "Taxi Driver" and directed "Affliction." Harrelson, Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, and Willem Dafoe are all names - not bankable names, but definitely names. And "The Walker" is intelligent, stylish, and uniformly well acted. Yet it barely slipped into New York and Los Angeles last year and had no Boston theatrical run. What gives?
Harrelson plays Page to perfection. With all due respect to Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones, no actor had a better and more varied 2007 than Harrelson, between this performance and his knockout turn in "No Country for Old Men." He's come a very long way from tending bar on "Cheers."
"The Walker" is four different movies (aha, complexity - that must have been the problem). At its best, it's a character study, aided and abetted by Harrelson's superbly nuanced performance. It's also the cinematic equivalent of a novel of manners: Edith Wharton goes to Washington. Third, it's a pretty good thriller (one of Page's ladies is conducting an affair with a politically connected businessman who meets a very messy end). You get the sense, though, Schrader's heart is with the final movie: a political tract that manages to be both vague and strident. Page's lover is a photographer who reworks images from Abu Ghraib. There are references to a sinister, all-powerful vice president (hello, Dick Cheney). An ambitious US attorney has it in for gays. None of this really gets in the way of the story, but it doesn't add much, either.
A beguiling, genre-eluding character, Carter Page III deserves better. Someone like David O. Russell should buy the rights to him; and, assuming Harrelson stays on board, he'd have the makings of a great, shrewd comedy. Until then, this DVD will have to do, and it does just fine.
Extras: making-of featurette, trailer (ThinkFilm, $27.98)
Television DVD | Tom Russo
Criticisms aside, this miniseries matters
The DVD debut of "Holocaust" (1978) boasts no extras to remind us, but the landmark television miniseries was hardly universally lauded when it first aired, however noble its intentions. Elie Wiesel was among those lending their voices to an impassioned debate about whether the project, and television treatment in general, trivialized history with its melodrama, insistence on hopeful closure, and commercial breaks. Directed by Marvin J. Chomsky as his follow-up to "Roots," the seven-and-a-half-hour series chronicled the trials of the Weisses, a well-to-do Berlin Jewish family, and the intertwined ascent of the Dorfs, a German family seduced by Nazi power. Meryl Streep, not yet 30, won an Emmy for her performance as German gentile Inga Weiss, who struggles fiercely to stand by her Jewish husband (James Woods), despite the forces pulling them apart as he's shipped off to Buchenwald, then Auschwitz. Streep (above) grounds her scenes skillfully, even though she's working with broadly archetypal material very different from the precise character study of "Sophie's Choice." Castmate Michael Moriarty ("Law & Order") also earned an Emmy as Erik Dorf, who transforms himself from a quiet, humble young family man into a bloodless, tunnel-visioned Nazi bureaucrat. It's a metamorphosis of rare subtlety in a story generally unconcerned with it, the lengthy running time notwithstanding. And yet there's no question that "Holocaust" made an impact, as it's been credited with everything from paving the way for films like "Schindler's List" to raising German consciousness. Thirty years on, the saga feels dated, but far from trivial. (Paramount, $29.99; available now)
ALSO THIS WEEK
"SEMI-PRO" (2008)
It's hardly as if Will Ferrell is ditching a proven formula here - a basketball spoof ought to be a slam dunk, right? But this clunky story about a third-rate '70s hoop franchise striving for NBA membership would be enough to put even fanatical sports fans to sleep, if not for all those desperate, louder-is-funnier line readings.
Extras: Unrated version; digital copy; production featurettes including a Bill Walton set visit. (New Line, $34.99; single-disc version, $28.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)
"THE EYE" (2008)
Remaking an Asian horror import, Jessica Alba stars as a blind woman whose corneal transplant surgery leaves her plagued by frightening visions. She might not have seen all this before, but you sure have.
Extras: Production featurettes; digital copy. (Lionsgate, $34.98; single-disc version, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99)
"THE ANIMATION SHOW": VOLUME 3 (2007)
Who'd have thought that Mike Judge would one day be able to bullet both "curator" and "Beavis & Butt-head creator" on his resume? Here, he culls more material from corners of the animation community as skewed as his own.
Extras: Video and text interviews with the animators. (Paramount, $19.99)
"VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW" (2008)
Vaughn can still make us laugh with memories of "Swingers" - and he does, as he kicks off his touring comedy festival by goofing around with old pal Jon Favreau back in Hollywood. But the unintended result is that we get the main event first, and then the undercard.
Extras: Additional skits; commentary by Vaughn and friends; behind-the-scenes segments. (New Line, $27.95)
REISSUES
"THE RED VIOLIN" (1998)
Filmmaker François Girard ("Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould") again ambitiously hits numerous dramatic notes as he traces a priceless violin's fateful chain of ownership. With Samuel L. Jackson in a welcome, atypical role as the antiques appraiser doing the historical backtracking.
Extras: Commentary by Girard and co-writer Don McKellar; featurette on the film's Oscar-winning score. (Lionsgate, $26.98)
TELEVISION
"RESCUE ME": THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON (2006-07)
Never mind firefighter Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) and all his usual dysfunctional family troubles - Chief Reilly (Jack McGee) makes a tragic exit this season, and public appreciation also dies hard as the crew is blasted for its inability to save a group of children.
Extras: Numerous production featurettes and deleted scenes. (
"WEEDS": SEASON THREE (2007)
Mary-Louise Parker continues to, um, deal with life after losing her husband. Insert "going green" joke here.
Extras: Cast and crew commentaries. (Lionsgate, $39.98; Blu-ray, $39.99)
Capsules are written by Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified. 